Photographs of wonder from the American Museum of Natural History

One hundred years ago, the American Museum of Natural History received a massive visitor, one so mighty that the doors of the museum’s delivery room “had to be removed and [the] partition openings enlarged” in order to accommodate it.

Was it a dinosaur? A meteorite? Perhaps the remains of a great whale?

No, the new visitor was a bush chrysanthemum, with over 1,500 blooms, 17 feet in diameter, wider, the New York Times notes, than the largest meteorite on the property.

The massive plant, grown north of the city at Ardsley-on-Hudson, was the star of an impressive plant and flower show at the museum with thousands of chrysanthemums and a so-called ‘rose gorgeous’ which “changes color as it opens.”

What is it about old museum pictures that I find so interesting? Most of the exhibits would today be considered politically incorrect, and modern advances have improved our knowledge about many of the objects being pictures. But the faces filled with wonder and imagination could be taken from museum images today.

Thanks for posting these photos. I lived in the metropolitan area of NYC from 1951 to 1965. My first visit to the American Museum of Natural History was in 1954 at age 9 when I was staying with my aunt and uncle on 5th ave across from Central Park. From that year on, especially in the summer, I visited the museum and planetarium uncountable times, usually on my own or taking my siblings. We’d take the Fulton St Tube from Penn Station in Newark and then the subway up to the museum and spend hours and hours, always taking in the star show at the planetarium as well. There was a cafeteria at the subway station below the museum and they had the greatest spaghetti. The American Museum and Hayden Planetarium complex has always been my most favorite place in NY and holds a high place in my list of cherished memories. Thanks again!

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